Search results for: virtual reference service

Authors: Huda Al-Shuaily, E. M. Lacap

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Higher Education is one of the most essential fundamentals for the advancement and progress of a country. It demands to be as accessible as possible and as comprehensive as it can be reached. In this paper, we succeeded to expand the accessibility and delivery of higher education using an Open Educational Resources (OER), a freely accessible, openly licensed documents, and media for teaching and learning. This study creates a comparative design of student’s academic performance on the course Introduction to Database and student engagement to the virtual learning environment (VLE). The study was done in two successive semesters - one without using the OER and the other is using OER. In the study, we established that there is a significant increase in student’s engagement in VLE in the latter semester compared to the former. By using the latter semester’s data, we manage to show that the student’s engagement has a positive impact on students’ academic performance. Moreso, after clustering their academic performance, the impact is seen higher for students who are low performing. The results show that these engagements can be used to potentially predict the learning styles of the student with a high degree of precision.

Keywords: EDM, learning analytics, moodle, OER, student-engagement

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Authors: Flavien Marteau, Pedro Affonso Nóbrega, Pascal Biwole, Nicolas Autrusson, Iona De Bievre, Christian Beauger

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Effective water management is essential for the optimal performance of fuel cells. For this reason, many vehicle systems use a membrane humidifier, a passive device that humidifies the air before the cathode inlet. Although they offer good performance, humidifiers are voluminous, costly, and fragile, hence the desire to find an alternative. Direct water injection could be an option, although this method lacks maturity. It consists of injecting liquid water as a spray in the dry heated air coming out from the compressor. This work focuses on the evaluation of direct water injection and its performance compared to the membrane humidifier selected as a reference. Two architectures were experimentally tested to humidify an industrial 2 kW short stack made up of 20 cells of 150 cm² each. For the reference architecture, the inlet air is humidified with a commercial membrane humidifier. For the direct water injection architecture, a pneumatic nozzle was selected to generate a fine spray in the air flow with a Sauter mean diameter of about 20 μm. Initial performance was compared over the entire range of current based on polarisation curves. Then, the influence of various parameters impacting water management was studied, such as the temperature, the gas stoichiometry, and the water injection flow rate. The experimental results obtained confirm the possibility of humidifying the fuel cell using direct water injection. This study, however shows the limits of this humidification method, the mean cell voltage being significantly lower in some operating conditions with direct water injection than with the membrane humidifier. The voltage drop reaches 30 mV per cell (4 %) at 1 A/cm² (1,8 bara, 80 °C) and increases in more demanding humidification conditions. It is noteworthy that the heat of compression available is not enough to evaporate all the injected liquid water in the case of DWI, resulting in a mix of liquid and vapour water entering the fuel cell, whereas only vapour is present with the humidifier. Variation of the injection flow rate shows that part of the injected water is useless for humidification and seems to cross channels without reaching the membrane. The stack was successfully humidified thanks to direct water injection. Nevertheless, our work shows that its implementation requires substantial adaptations and may reduce the fuel cell stack performance when compared to conventional membrane humidifiers, but opportunities for optimisation have been identified.

Keywords: cathode humidification, direct water injection, membrane humidifier, proton exchange membrane fuel cell

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Authors: Amar Omeiri

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This paper presents a three-phase shunt active power filter for current harmonics suppression and reactive power compensation using the supply current as reference. The proposed APF has a simple control circuit; it consists of detecting the supply current instead of the load current. The advantages of this APF are simplicity of control circuits and low implementation cost. The simulation results show that the proposed APF can compensate the reactive power and suppress current harmonics with two types of non-linear loads.

Keywords: active power filter, current harmonics and reactive power compensation, PWM inverter, Total Harmonic Distortion, power quality

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Authors: Sophia Ming Lee Wen, Chao-Ching Kuo, Yu-Line Hu, Yu-Lung Ho, Chih-Cheng Huang, Yi-Hwa Lee

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Teaching and learning should involve social issues by which effectiveness and humanity is due consideration as a guideline for sharing and co-creating knowledge. A qualitative method was used after a pioneer study to confirm pre-service teachers’ awareness of open knowledge. There are 17 in-service teacher candidates sampling from 181 schools in Taiwan. Two questions are to resolve: a) How did teachers change their educational ideas, in particular, their attitudes to meet the needs of knowledge sharing and co-creativity; and b) How did they acknowledge the necessity of working out an appropriate way between the educational efficiency and the nature of education for high performance management. This interview investigated teachers’ attitude of sharing and co-creating knowledge. The results show two facts in Taiwan: A) Individuals who must be able to express themselves will be capable of taking part in an open learning environment; and B) Teachers must lead the direction to inspire high performance and improve students’ capacity via knowledge sharing and co-creating knowledge, according to the student-centered philosophy. Collected data from interviewing showed that the teachers were well aware of changing their teaching methods and make some improvements to balance the educational efficiency and the nature of education. Almost all teachers acknowledge that ICT is helpful to motivate learning enthusiasm. Further, teaching integrated with ICT saves teachers’ time and energy on teaching preparation and promoting effectiveness. Teachers are willing to co-create knowledge with students, though using information is not easy due to the lack of operating skills of the website and ICT. Some teachers are against to co-create knowledge in the informational background since they hold that is not feasible for there being a knowledge gap between teachers and students. Technology would easily mislead teachers and students to the goal of instrumental rationality, which makes pedagogy dysfunctional and inhumane; however, any high quality of teaching should take a dialectical balance between effectiveness and humanity.

Keywords: critical thinking, dialectic between effectiveness and humanity, open knowledge, pedagogy

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Authors: D. Signore, M. Ferraiuolo, P. Caramuta, O. Petrella, C. Toscano

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The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a newly developed optical technique that is spreading in all engineering sectors because it allows the non-destructive estimation of the entire surface deformation without any contact with the component under analysis. These characteristics make the DIC very appealing in all the cases the global deformation state is to be known without using strain gages, which are the most used measuring device. The DIC is applicable to any material subjected to distortion caused by either thermal or mechanical load, allowing to obtain high-definition mapping of displacements and deformations. That is why in the civil and the transportation industry, DIC is very useful for studying the behavior of metallic materials as well as of composite materials. DIC is also used in the medical field for the characterization of the local strain field of the vascular tissues surface subjected to uniaxial tensile loading. DIC can be carried out in the two dimension mode (2D DIC) if a single camera is used or in a three dimension mode (3D DIC) if two cameras are involved. Each point of the test surface framed by the cameras can be associated with a specific pixel of the image, and the coordinates of each point are calculated knowing the relative distance between the two cameras together with their orientation. In both arrangements, when a component is subjected to a load, several images related to different deformation states can be are acquired through the cameras. A specific software analyzes the images via the mutual correlation between the reference image (obtained without any applied load) and those acquired during the deformation giving the relative displacements. In this paper, a metrological characterization of the digital image correlation is performed on aluminum and composite targets both in static and dynamic loading conditions by comparison between DIC and strain gauges measures. In the static test, interesting results have been obtained thanks to an excellent agreement between the two measuring techniques. In addition, the deformation detected by the DIC is compliant with the result of a FEM simulation. In the dynamic test, the DIC was able to follow with a good accuracy the periodic deformation of the specimen giving results coherent with the ones given by FEM simulation. In both situations, it was seen that the DIC measurement accuracy depends on several parameters such as the optical focusing, the parameters chosen to perform the mutual correlation between the images and, finally, the reference points on image to be analyzed. In the future, the influence of these parameters will be studied, and a method to increase the accuracy of the measurements will be developed in accordance with the requirements of the industries especially of the aerospace one.

Keywords: accuracy, deformation, image correlation, mechanical analysis

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Authors: Jaime A. Palma-Mendoza

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A supply chain consists of different processes and when conducting supply chain re-design is necessary to identify the relevant processes and select a target for re-design. A solution was developed which consists to identify first the relevant processes using the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, then to use Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for target process selection. An application was conducted in an Airline MRO supply chain re-design project which shows this combination can clearly aid the identification of relevant supply chain processes and the selection of a target process for re-design.

Keywords: decision support systems, multiple criteria analysis, supply chain management

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Authors: Parsa Keyvani, Alistair Phillips, David Warwick

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Background: The current process for gaining patient consent for hand and wrist surgery at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) is paper-based and makes use of generic forms provided by the NHS and no patient information leaflet is available relating to hand and wrist surgery. Aims: To evaluate the process of obtaining clinical consent and suggest ways in which the service can be improved. Methods: A log-book review of four orthopaedic surgeons at UHS was carried out over a three-month period in order to identify the 10 most common types of elective hand and wrist surgeries performed. A literature review was carried out to identify the complications of these surgeries. The surgeries were then divided into 6 types: nerve, bone, ligament, joint, tendon and dupuytren’s surgery. A digitised consent form was created covering the complications of all 6 surgery types. Finally, the surgeons at the orthopaedic department of UHS were asked whether they prefer the old paper-based or the digitised consent form. Results: All of the surgeons felt that the procedure type-based form was easier to read, use and understand. Conclusion: This research highlights a number of problems related to the use of current NHS consent forms. The proposed solution is to use a set of digitised, procedure type-based consent forms. Digital consent forms can be filled in in advance and sent to the patient electronically along with any relevant information leaflets, thus giving them time to absorb the information and come up with any questions before they have their pre-procedure discussion with their doctor. This would allow the doctor to focus the consultation on the patient rather than writing out the consent form and would ultimately be a step forward in making the NHS a global digital leader and fully embrace the opportunity offered by technology.

Keywords: digitised consent form, elective surgery, hand surgery complications, informed consent, procedure type-based consent form

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Authors: Rahul Malhotra

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Fiber based access networks can deliver performance that can support the increasing demands for high speed connections. One of the new technologies that have emerged in recent years is Passive Optical Networks. This paper is targeted to show the simultaneous delivery of triple play service (data, voice and video). The comparative investigation and suitability of various data rates is presented. It is demonstrated that as we increase the data rate, number of users to be accommodated decreases due to increase in bit error rate.

Keywords: BER, PON, TDMPON, GPON, CWDM, OLT, ONT

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Authors: Lei Ren, Michael Hartnett, Stephen Nash

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The abundant measured surface current from HF radar system in coastal area is assimilated into model to improve the modeling forecasting ability. A simple sequential data assimilation scheme, Direct Insertion (DI), is applied to update model forecast states. The influence of Direct Insertion data assimilation over time is analyzed at one reference point. Vector maps of surface current from models are compared with HF radar measurements. Root-Mean-Squared-Error (RMSE) between modeling results and HF radar measurements is calculated during the last four days with no data assimilation.

Keywords: data assimilation, CODAR, HF radar, surface current, direct insertion

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Authors: Ye Zhang, Chuanjun Liu

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In-service aircraft is exposed to different types of threaten, e.g. bird strike, ground vehicle impact, and run-way debris, or even lightning strike, etc. To satisfy the aircraft damage tolerance design requirements, the designer has to understand the threatening level for different types of the aircraft structures, either metallic or composite. Exposing to low-velocity impacts may produce very serious internal damages such as delaminations and matrix cracks without leaving visible mark onto the impacted surfaces for composite structures. This internal damage can cause significant reduction in the load carrying capacity of structures. The semi-probabilistic method provides a practical and proper approximation to establish the impact-threat based energy cut-off level for the damage tolerance evaluation of the aircraft components. Thus, the probabilistic distribution of impact threat and the realistic impact energy level cut-offs are the essential establishments required for the certification of aircraft composite structures. A new survey of impact threat to civil aircraft in-service has recently been carried out based on field records concerning around 500 civil aircrafts (mainly single aisles) and more than 4.8 million flight hours. In total 1,006 damages caused by low-velocity impact events had been screened out from more than 8,000 records including impact dents, scratches, corrosions, delaminations, cracks etc. The impact threat dependency on the location of the aircraft structures and structural configuration was analyzed. Although the survey was mainly focusing on the metallic structures, the resulting low-energy impact data are believed likely representative to general civil aircraft, since the service environments and the maintenance operations are independent of the materials of the structures. The probability of impact damage occurrence (Po) and impact energy exceedance (Pe) are the two key parameters for describing the statistic distribution of impact threat. With the impact damage events from the survey, Po can be estimated as 2.1x10-4 per flight hour. Concerning the calculation of Pe, a numerical model was developed using the commercial FEA software ABAQUS to backward estimate the impact energy based on the visible damage characteristics. The relationship between the visible dent depth and impact energy was established and validated by drop-weight impact experiments. Based on survey results, Pe was calculated and assumed having a log-linear relationship versus the impact energy. As the product of two aforementioned probabilities, Po and Pe, it is reasonable and conservative to assume Pa=PoxPe=10-5, which indicates that the low-velocity impact events are similarly likely as the Limit Load events. Combing Pa with two probabilities Po and Pe obtained based on the field survey, the cutoff level of realistic impact energy was estimated and valued as 34 J. In summary, a new survey was recently done on field records of civil aircraft to investigate the probabilistic distribution of impact threat. Based on the data, two probabilities, Po and Pe, were obtained. Considering a conservative assumption of Pa, the cutoff energy level for the realistic impact energy has been determined, which provides potential applicability in damage tolerance certification of future civil aircraft.

Keywords: composite structure, damage tolerance, impact threat, probabilistic

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Authors: Yoonah Lee, Richard Kyung

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With technological advances in the computational biomedical field, the ability to measure neurotransmitters’ chemical imbalances that affect depression and anxiety has been established. By comparing the thermodynamics stability of amino acid supplements, such as glutamine, tyrosine, phe-nylalanine, and methionine, this research analyzes mood-regulating neurotransmitters, amino acid supplements, and antipsychotic substances (ie. Reserpine molecule and CRF complexes) in relation to depression and anxiety and suggests alternative complexes that are low in energy to act as more efficient treatments for mood disorders. To determine a molecule’s thermodynamic stability, this research examines the molecular energy using Avogadro, a software for building virtual molecules and calculating optimized geometry using GAFF (General Amber Force Field) and UFF (Universal Force Field). The molecules, built using Avogadro, is analyzed using their theoretical values and atomic properties.

Keywords: amino acids, anxiety, depression, neurotransmitters

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Authors: J. Waita, S. Wamuhu, J. Makoyo, M. Rachel, T. Ngangari, W. Christine, M. Zipporah

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Contraceptive use is one of the key global strategies to alleviate maternal mortality. Global efforts through advocating for contraceptive uptake and service provision has led improved contraceptive prevalence. In Kenya maternal mortality rate has remained a challenged despites efforts by government and non-governmental organizations. Objective: To describe the uptake of contraceptives among women in Tunza Clinics, Kenya. Design and Methods: Ps Kenya through health care marketing fund is implementing a family planning program among its 350 Tunza fractional franchise facilities. Through private partnership, private owned facilities in low socio-economic areas are recruited and trained on contraceptive technology update. The providers are supported through facilitative supervision through a mobile based application Health Network Quality Improvement System (HNQIS) and interpersonal communication through 150 community based volunteers. The data analyzed in this paper was collected between January to July 2017 to show the uptake of modern Contraceptives among women in the Tunza franchise, method mix, age and distribution among the age bracket. Further analysis compares two different service delivery strategies; outreach and walk ins. Supportive supervision HNQIS scores was analyzed. Results: During the time period, a total of 132121 family planning clients were attended in 350 facilities. The average age of clients was 29.6 years. The average number of clients attended in the facilities per month was 18874. 73.7 %( n=132121) of the clients attended in the Tunza facilities were aged above 25 years while 22.1% 20-24 years and 4.2% 15-19 years. On contraceptive method mix, intra uterine device insertions clients contributed to 7.5%, implant insertions 15.3%, pills 11.2%, injections 62.7% while condoms and emergency pills had 2.7% and 0.6% respectively. Analysis of service delivery strategy indicated more than 79% of the clients were walk ins while 21% were attended to during outreaches. Uptake of long term contraceptive methods during outreaches was 73% of the clients while short term modern methods were 27%. Health Network Quality Improvement system assessment scores indicated 51% of the facilities scored over 90%, 25% scoring 80-89% while 21% scored below 80%. Conclusion: Preference for short term methods by women is possibly associated to cost as they are cheaper and easy to administer. When the cost of intra uterine device Implants is meant affordable during outreaches, the uptake is observed to increase. Making intra uterine device and implants affordable to women is a key strategy in increasing contraceptive prevalence hence averting maternal mortality.

Keywords: contraceptives, contraceptive uptake, low socio economic, supportive supervision

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Authors: J. Fernandez de Canete, S. Fernandez-Calvo, I. García-Moral

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This paper presents and discusses the application of the object-oriented modelling software SIMSCAPE to hydraulic systems, with particular reference to multivariable proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control. As a result, a particular modelling approach of a double cylinder-piston coupled system is proposed and motivated, and the SIMULINK based PID tuning tool has also been used to select the proper controller parameters. The paper demonstrates the usefulness of the object-oriented approach when both physical modelling and control are tackled.

Keywords: object-oriented modeling, multivariable hydraulic system, multivariable PID control, computer simulation

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Authors: Shahriar Shahbazpanahi, Mohammad Hemen Jannaty, Alaleh Kamgar

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Shear strengthening can be carried out in concrete structures by external fibre reinforced polymer (FRP). In the present investigation, a new fracture mechanics model is developed to model side face of strengthened concrete beam by external FRP. Discrete crack is simulated by a spring element with softening behavior ahead of the crack tip to model the cohesive zone in concrete. A truss element is used, parallel to the spring element, to simulate the energy dissipation rate by the FRP. The strain energy release rate is calculated directly by using a virtual crack closure technique and then, the crack propagation criterion is presented. The results are found acceptable when compared to previous experimental results and ABAQUS software data. It is observed that the length of the fracture process zone (FPZ) increases with the application of FRP in side face at the same load in comparison with that of the control beam.

Keywords: FPZ, fracture, FRP, shear

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Authors: Waleed Maqableh, Ahmad Al-Hamad, Manjit Sidhu

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Augmented reality (AR) technology has the capability to provide many benefits in the field of education as a modern technology which aided learning and improved the learning experience. This paper evaluates AR based application with multiple markers interaction technique (touch-to-print) which is designed for analyzing the kinematics of 4BL mechanism in mechanical engineering. The application is termed as AR-4BL-MAST and it allows the users to touch the symbols on a paper in natural way of interaction. The evaluation of this application was performed with mechanical engineering students and human–computer interaction (HCI) experts to test its effectiveness as a tangible user interface application where the statistical results show its ability as an interaction technique, and it gives the users more freedom in interaction with the virtual mechanical objects.

Keywords: augmented reality, multimedia, user interface, engineering, education technology

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Authors: Berkas Khaoula

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Based on selection characteristics, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) extruded pipes are among the most economical and durable materials as well-designed solutions for water and gas transmission systems. The main reasons for such a choice are the high quality-performance ratio and the long-term service durability under aggressive conditions. Due to inevitable interactions with soils of different chemical compositions and transported fluids, aggressiveness becomes a key factor in studying resilient strength and life prediction limits. This phenomenon is known as environmental stress cracking resistance (ESCR). In this work, the effect of 3 acidic environments (5% acetic, 20% hydrochloric and 20% sulfuric) on HDPE-100 samples (~10x11x24 mm3). The results presented in the form (Δm/m0, %) as a function of √t indicate that the absorption, in the case of strong acids (HCl and H2SO4), evolves towards negative values involving material losses such as antioxidants and some additives. On the other hand, acetic acid and deionized water (DW) give a form of linear Fickean (LF) and B types, respectively. In general, the acids cause a slow but irreversible alteration of the chemical structure, composition and physical integrity of the polymer. The DW absorption is not significant (~0.02%) for an immersion duration of 69 days. Such results are well accepted in actual applications, while changes caused by acidic environments are serious and must be subjected to particular monitoring of the OIT factor (Oxidation Induction Time). After 55 days of aging, the H2SO4 and HCl media showed particular values with a loss of % mass in the interval [0.025-0.038] associated with irreversible chemical reactions as well as physical degradations. This state is usually explained by hydrolysis of the polymer, causing the loss of functions and causing chain scissions. These results are useful for designing and estimating the lifetime of the tube in service and in contact with adverse environments.

Keywords: HDPE, environmental stress cracking, absorption, acid media, chemical aging

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Authors: Y. Smirlis, G. Koronakos, S. Plitsos

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Shipbrokers assist the ship companies in chartering or selling and buying vessels, acting as intermediates between them and the market. They facilitate deals, providing their expertise, negotiating skills, and knowledge about ship market bargains. Their role is very important as it affects the profitability and market position of a shipping company. Due to their significant contribution, the shipping companies have to employ systematic procedures to evaluate the shipbrokers’ services in order to select the best and, consequently, to achieve the best deals. Towards this, in this paper, we consider shipbrokers as financial service providers, and we formulate the problem of evaluating and selecting shipbrokers’ services as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) procedure. The proposed methodology comprises a first normalization step to adjust different scales and orientations of the criteria and a second step that includes the mathematical model to evaluate the performance of the shipbrokers’ services involved in the assessment. The criteria along which the shipbrokers are assessed may refer to their size and reputation, the potential efficiency of the services, the terms and conditions imposed, the expenses (e.g., commission – brokerage), the expected time to accomplish a chartering or selling/buying task, etc. and according to our modelling approach these criteria may be assigned different importance. The mathematical programming model performs a comparative assessment and estimates for the shipbrokers involved in the evaluation, a relative score that ranks the shipbrokers in terms of their potential performance. To illustrate the proposed methodology, we present a case study in which a shipping company evaluates and selects the most suitable among a number of sale and purchase (S&P) brokers. Acknowledgment: This study is supported by the OptiShip project, implemented within the framework of the National Recovery Plan and Resilience “Greece 2.0” and funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU programme.

Keywords: shipbrokers, multi-criteria decision making, mathematical programming, service-provider selection

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Authors: Donato Maniello, Alessandra Cirafici, Valeria Amoretti

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This paper aims to present a new method that consists in the use of video mapping techniques – that is a particular form of augmented reality, which could produce new tools - different from the ones that are actually in use - for an interactive Museum experience. With the words 'augmented reality', we mean the addition of more information than what the visitor would normally perceive; this information is mediated by the use of computer and projector. The proposed application involves the creation of a documentary that depicts and explains the history of the artifact and illustrates its features; this must be projected on the surface of the faithful copy of the freeze (obtained in full-scale with a 3D printer). This mode of operation uses different techniques that allow passing from the creation of the model to the creation of contents through an accurate historical and artistic analysis, and finally to the warping phase, that will permit to overlap real and virtual models. The ultimate step, that is still being studied, includes the creation of interactive contents that would be activated by visitors through appropriate motion sensors.

Keywords: augmented reality, multimedia, parthenon frieze, video mapping

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Authors: Dongjoo Kim

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Effective control of sloshing in a liquid container is an important issue to be resolved in many applications. In this study, numerical simulations are performed to design the velocity profile of rectangular container and investigate the effectiveness of input shaping for sloshing control. Trapezoidal profiles of container velocity are chosen to be reference commands and they are convolved with a series of impulses to generate shaped ones that induce minimal residual oscillations. The performances of several input shapers are compared from the viewpoint of transient peak and residual oscillations of sloshing. Results show that sloshing can be effectively controlled by input shaping (Supported by the NRF programs, NRF-2015R1D1A1A01059675, of Korean government).

Keywords: input shaping, rectangular container, sloshing, trapezoidal profile

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Authors: Mayada Al Meghari

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Recently, grid middlewares have provided large integrated use of network resources as the shared data and the CPU to become a virtual supercomputer. In this work, we present the design and implementation of the middleware for Data Warehouse Signature, DWS Framework. The aim of using the middleware in our DWS framework is to achieve the high performance by the parallel computing. This middleware is developed on Alchemi.Net framework to increase the security among the network nodes through the authentication and group-key distribution model. This model achieves the key security and prevents any intermediate attacks in the middleware. This paper presents the flow process structures of the middleware design. In addition, the paper ensures the implementation of security for DWS middleware enhancement with the authentication and group-key distribution model. Finally, from the analysis of other middleware approaches, the developed middleware of DWS framework is the optimal solution of a complete covering of security issues.

Keywords: middleware, parallel computing, data warehouse, security, group-key, high performance

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Authors: Birendra Kumar Jha, Mingma L. Sherpa, Binod Kumar Dahal

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Background: The metabolic syndrome is emerging as a major public health concern in the world. Urbanization, surplus energy uptake, compounded by decreased physical activities, and increasing obesity are the major factors contributing to the epidemic of metabolic syndrome worldwide. However, prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its risk factors are little studied in Terai region of Nepal. The objectives of this research were to estimate the prevalence and to identify the risk factors of metabolic syndrome among adults in Terai region of Nepal. Method: We used a community based cross sectional study design. A total of 225 adults (age: 18 to 80 years) were selected from three district of Terai region of Nepal using cluster sampling by camp approach. IDF criteria (central obesity with any two of following four factors: triglycerides ≥ 150 mg/dl or specific treatment for lipid abnormality, reduced HDL, raised blood pressure and raised fasting plasma glucose or previously diagnosed type 2 diabetes) were used to assess metabolic syndrome. Interview, physical and clinical examination, measurement of fasting blood glucose and lipid profile were conducted for all participants. Chi-square test and multivariable logistic regression were employed to explore the risk factors of metabolic syndrome. Result: The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 70.7%. Hypertension, increased fasting blood sugar, increased triglycerides and decreased HDL were observed in 50.7%, 32.4%, 41.8% and 79.1% of the subjects respectively. Socio-economic and behavioral risk factors significantly associated with metabolic syndrome were gender male (OR=2.56, 955 CI: 1.42-4.63; p=0.002), in service or retired from service (OR=3.72, 95% CI: 1.72-8.03; p=0.001) and smoking (OR= 4.10, 95% CI: 1.19-14.07; p=0.016). Conclusion: Higher prevalence of Metabolic syndrome along with presence of behavioral risk factors in Terai region of Nepal likely suggest lack of awareness and health promotion activities for metabolic syndrome and indicate the need to promote public health programs in this region to maintain quality of life.

Keywords: metabolic syndrome, Nepal, prevalence, risk factors, Terai

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Authors: Huang Wei-Chi, Li Wei, Yu Tien-Chieh

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Medication adherence is crucial for treatment success. Adherence problem is common in patients with polypharmacy, especially in the geriatric population who are vulnerable to multiple chronic conditions but averagely less knowledgeable about diseases and medications. In order to help patients take medications appropriately and enhance the understanding of diseases or medications, a Line official account named e-Pharmacist was designed. The line is a popular freeware app with the highest penetration rate (95.7%) in Taiwan. The interface of e-Pharmacist is user-friendly for easy-to-read and convenient operating. Differ from other medication adherence apps, users just added e-Pharmacist as a LINE friend without installing any more apps and the drug lists were automatically downloaded from the personal electronic medical records with security permission. Over and above medication reminder, several additional capabilities were set up and engaged in the platform of e-Pharmacist including prescription refill reservation, laboratory examination consultation, medical appointment registration, and “Daily Health Log” where patients can record and track data of blood pressure/blood sugar and daily meals for self-health management as well as can share the important information to clinical professionals when seeking medical help. Additionally, a Line chatbot was utilized to provide tailored medicine information for the individual user. From July 2020 to March 2022, around 3000 patients added e-pharmacist as Line friends. Every day more than 1500 patients receive messages from e-pharmacist to notify them to take medicine. Thanks to the e-pharmacist alert system and Chatbot, the low-compliance patients (defined by Program on Adherence to Medication, PAM) significantly dropped from 36% to 6%, whereas the high-compliance patients dramatically increased from 13% to 77%. The user satisfaction is 98%. In brief, an e-pharmacist is not only a medication reminder but also a tailored personal assistant with value-added service for health management.

Keywords: e-pharmacist, self-health management, medication reminder, value-added service

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Authors: Sanghamitra Sadhu

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A paradigm shift from capitalism to information technology is discerned in the era globalisation. The idea of public sphere, which was theorized in terms of its decline in the wake of the rise of commercial mass media has now emerged as a transnational or global sphere with the discourse being dominated by the ‘network society’. In other words, the dynamic of globalisation has brought about ‘a spatial turn’ in the social and political sciences which is also manifested in the public sphere, Especially the global public sphere. The paper revisits the Habermasian concept of the public sphere and focuses on the various social networking sites with their plausibility to create a virtual global public sphere. Situating Habermas’s notion of the bourgeois public sphere in the present context of global public sphere, it considers the changing dimensions of the public sphere across time and examines the concept of the ‘public’ with its shifting transformation from the concrete collective to the fluid ‘imagined’ category. The paper addresses the problematic of multimodal self-portraiture in the social networking sites as well as various online diaries/journals with an attempt to explore the nuances of the networked self.

Keywords: globalisation, network society, public sphere, self-fashioning, identity, autonomy

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Authors: Muhammad Younas, Sidra Sawati, M. Razzaq Athar

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Organizational development history reveals that it has ever been a challenge to identify and fathom the role of talent management, career development and compensation management towards employees’ retention and organizational performance. Organizations strive hard to measure the impact of all those factors which affect employee retention and organizational performance. Researchers have worked in great deal in order to know the relationship of independent variables i.e. Talent Management, Career Development and Compensation Management on dependent variables i.e. Employee Retention and Organizational Performance. Employees adorned with latest skills with long lasting loyalty play a significant role towards successful achievement of short term as well as long term goals of the organizations. Retention of valuable and resourceful employees for a longer time is equally essential for meeting the set goals. The organizations which spend reasonable chunk of their resources for taking such measures that help to retain their employees through talent management and satisfactory career development always enjoy a competitive edge over their competitors. Human resource is regarded as one of the most precious and difficult resource to management. It has its own needs and requirement. It becomes an easy prey to monotony when lacks career development. Wants and aspirations of this resource are seldom met completely but can be managed through career development and compensation management. In this era of competition, organizations have to take viable steps to management their resources especially human resource. Top management and Managers keep on working for an amenable solution in order to address the challenges relating career development and compensation management as their ultimate goal is to ensure the organizational performance on optimum level. The current study was conducted to examine the impact of Talent Management, Career Development and Compensation Management towards Employees Retention and Organizational Performance with mediating effect of Employees Motivation in Service Sector of Pakistan. The current study is based on Resource Based View (RBV) and Ability Motivation Opportunity (AMO) theories. It explains that by increasing internal resources we can manage employee talent, career development through compensation management and employee motivation more effectively. It will result in effective execution of HRM practices for employee retention enabling an organization to achieve and sustain competitive advantage through optimal performance. Data collection was made through a structured questionnaire which was based upon adopted instruments after testing reliability and validity. A total 300 employees of 30 firms in service sector of Pakistan were sampled through non-probability sampling technique. Regression analysis revealed that talent management, career development and compensation management have significant positive impact on employee retention and perceived organizational performance. The results further showed that employee motivation have a significant mediating effect on employee retention and organizational performance. The interpretation of the findings and limitations, theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

Keywords: career development, compensation management, employee retention, organizational performance, talent management

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Authors: H. Imad, Y. Cheah, O. Aamera

Abstract:

The aims of this research are to study the mitochondrial non-coding region by using the Sanger sequencing technique and establish the degree of variation characteristics of a fragment. FTA® Technology (FTA™ paper DNA extraction) utilized to extract DNA. A portion of a non-coding region encompassing positions 37 to 340 amplified in accordance with the Anderson reference sequence. PCR products purified by EZ-10 spin column then sequenced and detected by using the ABI 3730xL DNA Analyzer. New polymorphic positions 57, 63, and 101 are described may in future be suitable sources for identification purpose. The data obtained can be used to identify variable nucleotide positions characterized by frequent occurrence most promising for identification variants.

Keywords: encompassing nucleotide positions 37 to 340, HVII, Iraq, mitochondrial DNA, polymorphism, frequency

Procedia PDF Downloads 744

Authors: Mustafa Kaya

Abstract:

In this study, the effect of pre-stressed strand diameters, providing the beam-to-column connections, was investigated from both experimental, and analytical aspects. In the experimental studies, the strength and stiffness, the capacities of the precast specimens were compared. The precast specimen with strands of 15.24 mm reached an equal strength of the reference specimen. Parallel results were obtained during the analytical studies from the aspects of strength, and behavior, but in terms of stiffness, it was seen that the initial stiffness of the analytical models was lower than that of the tested specimen.

Keywords: post-tensioned connections, beam to column connections, finite element method, strand diameter

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: Borhan Marzougui

Abstract:

Road and Transport Authority (RTA) is moving ahead with the implementation of the leader’s vision in exploring all avenues that may bring better security and safety services to the community. Smart transport means using smart technologies such as IoT (Internet of Things). This technology continues to affirm its important role in the context of Information and Transportation Systems. In fact, IoT is a network of Internet-connected objects able to collect and exchange different data using embedded sensors. With the growth of IoT, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is also growing exponentially. DDoS attacks are the major and a real threat to various transportation services. Currently, the defense mechanisms are mainly passive in nature, and there is a need to develop a smart technique to handle them. In fact, new IoT devices are being used into a botnet for DDoS attackers to accumulate for attacker purposes. The aim of this paper is to provide a relevant understanding of dangerous types of DDoS attack related to IoT and to provide valuable guidance for the future IoT security method. Our methodology is based on development of the distributed algorithm. This algorithm manipulates dedicated intelligent and cooperative agents to prevent and to mitigate DDOS attacks. The proposed technique ensure a preventive action when a malicious packets start to be distributed through the connected node (Network of IoT devices). In addition, the devices such as camera and radio frequency identification (RFID) are connected within the secured network, and the data generated by it are analyzed in real time by intelligent and cooperative agents. The proposed security system is based on a multi-agent system. The obtained result has shown a significant reduction of a number of infected devices and enhanced the capabilities of different security dispositives.

Keywords: IoT, DDoS, attacks, botnet, security, agents

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Ronit German, Alexandra Beytenbrat

Abstract:

Although English seems to be prevalent in every sphere of Israeli daily life, not many Israeli students have a sufficient level of writing and speaking in English which is necessary for academic studies. The inadequate level of English among Israeli students is because the sole focus is on teaching reading comprehension, and the need to adapt to the trends of the professional worldwide demands triggered a reform that requires implementing Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) courses in the Israeli academic institutions. However, it will be argued that this reform is challenging to implement. The fact that modern Hebrew is a revived language, and that English is L3 for more than 30% of the population, the diverse social and cultural students’ background, and psychological factors stand in the way of the new reform.

Keywords: CEFR, cultural diversity, EMI courses, English in Israel, reform

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: Yen-Jong Chen, Jei-An Su

Abstract:

Public use facilities provide the basic infrastructure supporting the needs of urban sustainable development. These facilities include roads (streets), parking areas, green spaces, public schools, and city parks. However, how to acquire land with the proper location and size still remains uncertain in a capitalist economy where land is largely privately owned, such as in cities in Taiwan. The issue concerning the proper acquisition of reserved land for local public facilities (RLPF) policies has been continuously debated by the Taiwanese government for more than 30 years. Lately, the government has been re-evaluating projects connected with existing RLPF policies from the viewpoints of the needs of local residents, including the living environments of older adults. This challenging task includes addressing the requests of official bureau administrators, citizens whose property rights and current use status are affected, and other stakeholders, along with the means of development. To simplify the decision to acquire or release public land, we selected only public facilities that are needed for living in the local community, including parks, green spaces, plaza squares, and land for kindergartens, schools, and local stadiums. This study categorized these spaces as the community’s “leisure public facilities” (LPF). By constructing an accessibility index of the services of such multi-function facilities, we computed and produced a GIS map of spatial buffer zones for each LPF. Through these procedures, the service needs provided by each LPF were clearly identified. We then used spatial buffer zone envelope mapping to evaluate these service areas. The results obtained can help decide which RLPF should be acquired or released so that community services can be maximized under a limited budget.

Keywords: urban public facilities, community demand, accessibility, spatial buffer zone, Taiwan

Procedia PDF Downloads 62

Authors: Najm Alotaibi

Abstract:

Human motion capture has become one of the major area of interest in the field of computer vision. Some of the major application areas that have been rapidly evolving include the advanced human interfaces, virtual reality and security/surveillance systems. This study provides a brief overview of the techniques and applications used for the markerless human motion capture, which deals with analyzing the human motion in the form of mathematical formulations. The major contribution of this research is that it classifies the computer vision based techniques of human motion capture based on the taxonomy, and then breaks its down into four systematically different categories of tracking, initialization, pose estimation and recognition. The detailed descriptions and the relationships descriptions are given for the techniques of tracking and pose estimation. The subcategories of each process are further described. Various hypotheses have been used by the researchers in this domain are surveyed and the evolution of these techniques have been explained. It has been concluded in the survey that most researchers have focused on using the mathematical body models for the markerless motion capture.

Keywords: human motion capture, computer vision, vision-based, tracking

Procedia PDF Downloads 302